A local restaurateur and business colleague [Pasta Pronto, Festa d’Italia and Arcand Townhouse] was invited to develop the water rights in front of the new Museum Wharf at Boston’s Fort Point Channel, into a waterfront family-restaurant.

Even though we opted for a boat-like design we set our own ground rules that the kitchen had to be full-service, as on a land-based restaurant, plus it needed a full and separate bar and had to have seating for 400.  We traveled to Staten Island - the marine salvage capital of the East Coast - and located an abandoned coffee barge, which lent itself well to conversion into credible and ample floor plans.

Since this structure had to float with the tides - a 14’ range under normal conditions - we developed stainless steel flexible pipes to carry gas lines and electrical cables, and water and sewer.  To get people on board at different water levels, I invented a “variable ratio stair” that, luckily, was extremely successful.

As the articles relate, at the bottom of this page, the design inspiration came from the Children’s Museum itself.  In font of the building was a giant milk bottle and inside the museum lobby was a giants desk with huge paperclips and accessories.  Why not complete the ensemble by adding a giant toy boat?  The red part represents the original coffee barge, the white parts are all new.